Unbelievable, what do you think?

bighousenurse · May 12, 2007

it's time to get outta dodge while you still have a license in good standing. hospitals are paying to use your license to provide care. you lose your license, they're just going to get someone else's to replace your's. don't jeopardize what you worked your a@@ off for. frank words, i know, but i've seen it happen.

Lylesmom · May 12, 2007

the ironic part of the CEO's thinking is that he quote "wants our hospital to be in the top 5% of Hospitals" how?

jnrsmommy · May 12, 2007

it's time to get outta dodge while you still have a license in good standing. hospitals are paying to use your license to provide care. you lose your license, they're just going to get someone else's to replace your's. don't jeopardize what you worked your a@@ off for. frank words, i know, but i've seen it happen.

:yeahthat:

Donnetterr · May 12, 2007

I am sorry to hear you are going through this. Is there anyone outside of the unit you could talk to? Does your hospital have an ethics department or a person in HR who takes complaints about patient safety issues? Patient safety and nurse safety should not be on the backburner due to layoffs. Layoffs should hit administrative staff first, in my opinion, not those involved in patient care.

nurseinlimbo · May 12, 2007

This is similar to the situation here in most jobs. Alberta is so short of nurses that nurses are working double shifts, short shift, 4 hours OT, no weekends off, 12 and 15 shifts in a row, etc. etc.

I have to chuckle a bit, because a manager in one of my jobs recently passed me over for a full time temp position and hired a brand new hire (I had been here 3 years working PRN) She has been here for 5 months, her position is up in another 2 months and she recently found something else and is leaving. In the meantime, I have found another permanent position somewhere else, and don't have the availability that I used to have. I make less, have to work 8's instead of 12s (which I prefer), but I need steady year round hours, so since he did the above to me, I don't feel sorry for him with the summer shortage that he is faced with. The permanent full timers are going to be pulling alot of OT this summer, and they won't be happy either. Plus, as discussed, what effect does all this have on Pt care?

We are on the brink of a severe nursing crisis, and managers need to get their heads out of their A$$.

Lylesmom · May 12, 2007

Well I wish there was something that could be done, all this month the CEO, which btw did I mention he is new, like 4 months new, anyway...he is having meetings all month long with the entire staff of the hospital and it is mandatory that we go.

I attend this meeting on the 25th, and from what I am told, you are told to either get on the bus and accept these changes or...you can tell them that day that you are giving your notice, no questions asked, and they will cut you a check for 3wks pay and you are done working at the hospital. the only thing is, I know if I leave because I know it is unsafe for the patients, than I will have to pay back 5,000 in tuition to the hospital. I only work part-time 20hours a week, and I know the 3wk pay would not be enough, and to try to find another job right now with 2 terms of school left, would be too much. I just don't understand how if people leave, such as one of our nurses, how they can not hire someone to replace her, she was not on of those who were laid off.

darms · May 12, 2007

I think it sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place. MY suggestion is if you can not afford to leave your job at this time,which it sounds like you can't you need to look at it in a new way. the only thing you can do is do the best you can in this situation. You can't save the world you need to go into your job focusing on what you can do, and thats keep a positive additude as possible give the best care that you possibly can and when and if something happens document document as much as you can the reason why such as lack of staff, and maybe nurses all should start looking at political careers, but please please dont burn yourself out, just do the best you can, if you have to stay thats all you can do. If you cant change where your are you need to change your head, Sorry I wish I could tel you it was going to change but it dosent sound like it when your told to get on the busor off if you dont like it. Oh and keep venting and using this place to get it of your chest, and God Bless you and your patients for having such a great nurse who cares.

catlynLPN · May 12, 2007

I think it sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place. MY suggestion is if you can not afford to leave your job at this time,which it sounds like you can't you need to look at it in a new way. the only thing you can do is do the best you can in this situation. You can't save the world you need to go into your job focusing on what you can do, and thats keep a positive additude as possible give the best care that you possibly can and when and if something happens document document as much as you can the reason why such as lack of staff, and maybe nurses all should start looking at political careers, but please please dont burn yourself out, just do the best you can, if you have to stay thats all you can do. If you cant change where your are you need to change your head, Sorry I wish I could tel you it was going to change but it dosent sound like it when your told to get on the busor off if you dont like it. Oh and keep venting and using this place to get it of your chest, and God Bless you and your patients for having such a great nurse who cares.

I think it's illegal to document in a patient's chart that the reason something wasn't done was due to lack of staff.

If it isn't actually illegal I'm sure your manager would have a field day with it.

justme1972 · May 12, 2007

For those of you who read my last thread about me worrying about losing my job due to layoffs at the hospital where I work, well I now know that won't be a problem, and here is why...
one of our nurses who has worked for two years is leaving to go into travel nursing, and when our nurse manager and our director went to have the job posted they were told that the position would not be filled, they were told that hopefully the rest of us would just absorb those hours.
Our unit is acute physical rehab, we are an 18 bed unit, and everyone is always so burnt out all the time because we feel that we are not properly staffed. our hospital go off of patient to nurse ratio instead of acuity. This wouldn't be a big deal on other units, like med-surg were every nurse has a CNA helping them, on our unit, we have hopefully one a shift. most of our patients are head trauma's, or debility, or cva's. We generally have at least 8 that are 2 assist, or the use of a lifting device, we also have bed alarms on about half of them because they try to get out of bed. Right now we also have a patient that is one on one. So yesterday when I worked we have our aide was with the one on one. we also now due to the layoff, have a unit sec only monday through thursday. I do not understand where they think we have the time to try to answer the phones if we are all in patients rooms. Our nurse manager asked everyone that works on our unit that wasn't scheduled this weekend, including me, if they would work, everyone said no, so she being pretty much forced to, is working. I am hoping that she will realize what we are going through and how without the right amount of staffing, how hard it is.
She use to work on med/surg and got this position when our manager left, and since then she has only done direct patient care twice, in a little over a year.
I just want to know what everyone thinks about the situation that our hospital is putting our staff in, and the patients as well. without proper staffing they are not getting the care they deserve to have, and if we are all in a patients room and a bed alarm goes off, there is no one there to try to prevent a patient from falling. please let me know what you think about this, it feels good to vent if anything and get this off my chest.

Just keep in mind that healthcare facilities (to the administrators), are a business. Some of them care about quality, some of them don't. Sometimes if it overworks a few healthcare professions and a few die along the way, some of them don't really care. It's a cold hard fact.

Just keep in mind, that no matter how short-staffed your facility seems to be...don't think that they won't make further cuts if they are in lay-off mode.